Abstract

Shantytown formation in Peru has widely been understood as a simple informal housing formation by the urban poor in Peru. Most studies have tried to determine the cause of shantytown formation and concluded that it is caused by extreme rural poverty and expanding inequalities between the rural and urban areas resulting in the migration of the impoverished to the cities. Yet, they did not provide more comprehensive and historical analysis in terms of how such social process begun and evolved. The purpose of this research is to offer a comprehensive interpretation by identifying a long-durée historical trajectory that led shantytown formation in Lima. By tracing back to the time when Lima was established as the capital city of Peru in 1532, this research situates this process in the longer and larger context of Peruvian social transformation beyond the twentieth century and the Peruvian society. Using the method of historical sociology, this study pays attention to crucial historical events and transformation by proposing five different time periods starting from 1532 to the present. This study found out that there are the underlying historical processes and structures of the capitalist world-system which led to the shantytown formation in Lima, and it is possible to interpret that shantytown formation is a part of a long-durée anti-systemic process against the exploitive capitalist world-system. Moreover, the shantytowns have served crucial social functions in contemporary Peru and the inhabitants have become crucial agents of social change by providing a new path for Peruvian social transformation.